This invention relates to a loading apparatus. More particularly, the invention relates to an apparatus for loading a plurality of articles into a receptacle having parallel rows of openings each of which is adapted to receive a respective one of the articles.
The background of the invention and the details of the invention itself will be described in the context of loading syringe sub-assemblies into trays. It will be apparent, however, that the principles of the invention have broader applicability.
At one point in the manufacture of hypodermic syringes, syringe sub-assemblies must be loaded into trays for storage and shipment. Each of the syringe sub-assemblies is constituted of a syringe barrel or vial, usually of glass, having a flange at one end thereof and a throat at the other end thereof with a hypodermic needle secured to the vial at the throat thereof and a rubber sheath covering the needle and sufficiently tightly fit on the throat that it will not fall off but can be removed manually by being pulled firmly when the time has come to use the syringe. The open extremity of the sheath which fits on the throat is of larger external diameter than at the rest of the sheath. The syringe sub-assemblies are to be loaded into the respective openings in the trays with the sheath end of the sub-assembly pointing vertically downwardly. The openings in the tray are usually arranged in 10 rows of 10 openings each. The openings in each row of openings are staggered relative to the openings in each adjacent row of openings. Each opening for a sub-assembly is actually constituted of a pair of vertically aligned openings, the upper one of which is in an upper horizontal plate of the tray and the lower one of which is in a lower horizontal plate of the tray. Both plates are near the top of the tray. When the syringe sub-assemblies are loaded into the tray, each is supported by the resting of the undersurface of the annular flange at the open end of the vial upon the portion of the upper plate surrounding the opening therein in which the sub-assembly has been received, the sheathed lower end of the sub-assembly being suspended slightly above the bottom of the tray.
Manual loading of these trays is, of course, inefficient. Machine loading posed many problems, which is was the object of the present invention to solve. Notable among these problems was the automatic simultaneous insertion of syringe sub-assemblies into entire rows of these openings, each of the sub-assemblies having to be perfectly aligned with the openings and perfectly guided down into the openings without getting caught at the edge of the opening either in the upper plate or the lower plate. Such problems are all solved by the present invention.
Other objects and advantages of the invention will be apparent from the following description.